


Meet the Hulk (AKA Bruce Banner)

by Mysana



Series: The Extraordinary Life of Darcy Lewis (Much to her Fathers' Worry) [16]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-09-08 04:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8829952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysana/pseuds/Mysana
Summary: A three part introduction to the greenest Avenger.





	1. The Hulk

**Author's Note:**

> There are not actually very graphic depictions of violence but it's not pleasant. If you're not sure you're good with that check the end notes for a summary of the violence.

Darcy decides that a few things should be universally recognised. First, she’s cursed. Second, when a person gets information that they need to process, something will inevitably go wrong in such a way to completely distract them. She decides this as she drops to her stomach and tries not to grunt in pain as Hydra agents begin to swarm the building. She would normally just wait until she can’t see any, then run to panic room.

Unfortunately, that’s not one of today’s options because Jane is one of the targets. Now, to be fair, Darcy wasn’t there at the Hydra briefing where they said, “Yes, Jane Foster is the focus for this attack” but, Jane Foster, aka her boss and BFF, _is_ the main focus of this attack. One might be able to recognise this from the way that Thor was _desperately needed_ , as far away as possible, and because there were more than five Hydra agents in the room Darcy is hiding in. In Jane’s office.

Also, she just heard Jane scream in the other room. Which, is not good news.

That was a main indicator. It’s often hard to tell what’s important when the Tower gets attacked. There’s lots of background noise that makes it hard for Darcy to process the situation so she has to ignore most of it and focus on whatever is happening in the room that she’s in.

(The building shakes.)

Darcy grabs her taser from her new thigh strap that she had found on her bed that morning. She’s _pretty sure_ Natasha left her. (She’s on a first name basis with _the Black Widow_.)

(Distant screaming starts up louder than before.)

She pushes she way under the cover of Jane’s desk which is made to hide under in this sort of situation. She only has two hits with her taser before it’s spent so what she needs is to get her hands on is a gun. Unfortunately they’re not likely to be carrying Brownings or Sig Saucers that she’d grown up using, now that black market Stark weapons were so damn popular. (Mostly as a spit to the face of her dear old dad.) Worse still, Stark Weapons were _made_ to be hard to hijack. Ideally to prevent terrorists from using them. ‘ _Oh irony, I love you, and I hate you_.’

(The glass shakes.)

Darcy takes a deep, quiet breath. Her hands weren’t shaking, she wasn’t scared. She was calm. She couldn’t handle phantom enemies in her dreams and stalking her days. Real ones were easy though.

So guns were a bad idea. What other weapons were they likely to have? Most Hydra agents had poison in their false teeth but that wasn’t very helpful in fighting scenarios. They might have cattle prods in case they needed to deal with one of the super soldiers since electricity was one of the only ways to quickly put down a super solider without outright killing them. They _might_ have knives since some agents specialised and throwing knives were strangely popular.

(The glass implodes.)

The room is suddenly a lot quieter and Darcy can’t see anything to understand why. The sounds of men rummaging through Jane’s paperwork (that doesn’t actually have any important information) has completely stopped. All she can hear is the sound of huge lungs breathing heavily. Not many men breathing heavily. No. One, larger than man sized being, breathing heavily. That’s when Darcy clocks it.

The Hulk.

When Darcy had first called her parents to inform them of her living situation, Dad had made her go through all of the Avengers and come up with a plan in case any of the turned on her in a violent situation. They had agreed that the Hulk was the most dangerous because although Iron Man and Thor were better at strategy, they were also more human and less likely to outright kill her. The Hulk, as far as they could tell, didn’t actually have empathy. Which was actually scary as hell. (She doesn’t let herself think of Moriarty, now was not the time.)

As Darcy starts to quietly panic, there is a soft growl. Then a squishing sound with cracking undertones. (Darcy is pretty sure she’s about to be sick.) She tends to automatically keep track of the sounds of breathing in a room. It’s very useful when people are trying to lie to her. But now she wants to puke. Because one the breathing noises have gone quiet. And no one has said a thing.

(The background noise decreases.)

Then two more squishes and cracks and Darcy actually starts gagging. Her overactive imagination showing her the red stain that those humans, people, (terrible, horrible, Hydra agents) are now. There is another growl, this one louder and Darcy can hear two sets of boots _flee_. And the little instinct part of Darcy’s brain says, “ _uh oh_ “ because there is _nothing_ Darcy can do against the Hulk in such close corridors. Not unless the desk is going to hide her.

Things get worse.

(Darcy can hear someone calling her name, but it seems very far away.)

The desk around her creek and then something gives in the floor, and it’s being lifted up from around her. And Darcy is now sitting defenceless against one of the strongest and most dangerous beings on Earth. (She actually isn’t stupid enough to think that the Hulk can even compare to some of the beings no doubt found in this expansive universe.) Darcy turns, because if she’s going to die, she wants to look it in the eyes. (Like her Dad, like her Papa, like Tony-Fucking-Stark.)

And while looking the giant green beast in the face, a voice comes to her like a savior. Not Dad.

(The alarms turn off.)

But Papa. Papa, with his oatmeal sweaters (jumpers) and callused hands. Eight bullet holes in the bull’s eye as Darcy tries not to think about how alone they are in the forest. Hot chocolate after nightmares that left them both screaming. (Holding a shaking gun and pointing at the face she loves.)

The voice says, “ _You wouldn’t believe what people do when they’re scared and desperate. So if you’re ever in a situation where trying not to draw attention to yourself won’t work, try to calm who ever it is down. If someones robbing a bank all on their lonesome, they probably think that they have nothing to lose. What you need to do is talk to them. Be calm. Be cool._ ”

“ _You’re good at talking Darcy, use it._ ”

“Hello.” Darcy’s voice isn’t smooth or silky, especially not right now with the acid feel of sick still lingering in her throat. “My name is Darcy Lewis.” She feels like she’s on a bad talk show and is about to introduce her addiction and allow the whole world to judge her for it. “I work for Jane Foster, she’s a scientist who looks at the sky and stars. She’s friends with Bruce Banner and Tony Stark, do you know them?”

The Hulk hasn’t moved except to put the desk down to the side but the look in his face is. Something. Scared? Surprised? Unnerved? She’s not sure. Darcy is going to start talking about her parents when a streak of gold and red flies through the air and Iron Man is standing in front of her. _Between her and the Hulk._

And she knows that this can go one of two ways. Very good. Or very, very bad.


	2. Transition

Darcy watched as her newly identified Father started to power up the blasters in his hands. (They looked cool, but how did they work?)

“Wait!” Darcy briefly wondered who’d said it, but then realised it was definitely her. “Tony, talk to him. Hitting him won’t help. Just talk. Lift up the face plate so he can see you.” Her mouth was working faster than her brain could catch up. The Hulk was part of Bruce Banner though, and… and Banner liked Tony. But the Hulk would try to smash Iron Man if attacked. So Hulk had to see Iron Man as a friend. Tony friend. 

Hundreds of disjointed thoughts flew through her mind, very few making any sense at all. But one that stuck was that the Hulk seemed to understand language even if he didn’t speak very much himself. 

Tony didn’t turn and look at her, but he did pause. 

“Hello Hulk.” His voice was modulated and sounded fake, and Darcy wasn’t sure how much that would help. 

“Take your face plate up!” Darcy hissed, Hulk looked confused but that wouldn’t last forever. Again, Tony didn’t turn to look at her, as far as she could tell his eyes never left the Hulk, but he did something to let up the face plate.

“Do you remember me? I’m one of Brucie bear’s friends. We play science together. It’s great. I’ve been meaning to ask - do you prefer kittens or puppies?”

There was a huge wave of displaced air as the Hulk dropped into a sitting position. 

“NO SMASH?” 

“No smash.” Tony said, his voice was calm but Darcy could hear the small shake at the end of it. 

The giant figure of the Hulk started shrinking at an alarming rate and Darcy felt the tension leave her like a balloon with a hole. Laying on the floor was a tanned man, asleep inside a ripped pair of purple pants. 

Tony turned. “Oh thank god you’re okay! Okay. Okay. I need to go-“ Tony trailed for a for a moment. Then stepped out of the Iron Man suit and pulled her up. And … gave her a giant hug. “I am so glad you are okay.” Then he put on the suit, princess lifted the man, and ran off again. 

Natasha found in her later, in much the same position, having puked a few times Darcy was feeling both better and worse. The fear was bitter and survival was sweet, but the place she had felt safe had been invaded. And she was not having a good time of it. Natasha spoke to her softly in variating English and Russian, calling her pet name and telling she was safe. Then Natasha help her shower and put her to bed. 

Darcy murmured something that was supposed to be “thank you for the thigh holster and looking after. I’m sorry for being a failure of a human being” but came out very differently, Natasha seemed to understand anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter to transition. I will be trying to update one of my stories each weekend. This will probably mean an update every other weekend for this series. :) Wish me luck!


	3. Bruce Banner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha is not going to let this develop into a long, drawn out drama.

Darcy wasn’t impressed when Natasha told her to go try yoga. She was so very not impressed that she agreed then and there. Actually… Those two things were rather unconnected. Darcy was unimpressed by the idea. Natasha was highly convincing, by which Darcy means that Natasha made vague references to the idea that it would definitely be a good idea and that Darcy would _very much_ regret it if she didn’t.

So yeah, unimpressed, but she still signed up.

That was how Darcy found herself at 10am on Tuesday outside a room she had never been in before. Inside was a ballet studio and no else other than Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner. It smelled rather strongly of a set up. Goddamn Natasha.

“Hey Darcy!” Natasha smiled in that way that made most people who knew her piss their pants from fear. She looked like she was about 13 years old when she did that. How the hell someone like Natasha could look 13 years old baffled Darcy. Like really, so baffling.

“Hey Natasha.”

“Hello, I am Doctor Bruce Banner.” The man stuck his hand out and Darcy remembered the noise the Hydra soldiers made as they went squish. He spoke and Darcy heard the sound of The Hulk’s heavy breathing.

“Hi.” _Goddamn Natasha._ Darcy didn’t shake his hand. But, she didn’t run away screaming either, so win to Darcy.

“Okay, let’s get started. Bruce, because you’ve done this before I want you on my right, closer to me. Darcy you can go on my left behind Bruce, that way you can copy his stance. He’s pretty good at yoga so if you’re unsure of what you should be doing, copy him.”

Dr. Banner moved his yoga mat into place without another word, Darcy watched as he moved, all tense shoulders and self awareness. She wondered, if he walked on grass, would the grass even bend? That was the sort of vibe. Like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and, yeah, sure, it was killing him, but that was no reason not to be careful. Every movement, controlled.

***

“Natasha, I think I hate you.”

“Darcy, we’ve barely started.” Natasha said in her usual infuriatingly unconcerned voice. She wasn’t even breathing hard. Damn her.

“Nope. It’s decided. I hate you.”

***  
“So, was that so terrible Darcy?” Natasha asked, Darcy opened her eyes and looked up and Natasha’s happily looming figure. She took another few loud gasping breaths before she could answer.

“Yes. It was horrific. I hate you. Why.”

“Well, let’s put it this way, if you see Dr. Banner in the hallway, are you going to have a panic attack?”

Darcy wondered for a moment. Would she have a panic attack? Well. No. Probably not. How could she be afraid of the the calm man who was less than two decades older than her but looked like he could be her father. How could she be afraid of the man who fell over standing on one foot then laughed it off and tried again. How could she be afraid of _him_?

“… No.”

“Then it wasn’t so terrible. My other option was to just randomly shove you two into the same room at some point.”

“…That doesn’t _sound_ like it would have gone well.”

“No. Probably no.” Natasha said, continuing to sound unconcerned. _Damn her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep. Still alive. :) Comments = Motivation. (Love you guys so much!)

**Author's Note:**

> The violence described is the Hulk smashing three Hydra agents, Darcy doesn't see this happening but she hears it and imagines it. If you don't want to read this section skip from 'Darcy starts to quietly panic' to 'And the little instinct part of Darcy's brain'
> 
> BTW: This has had limited editing, so if you spot a mistake please, please, please let me know! :)


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